Yellowstone

U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke approved a 20-year ban on new mining claims in the towering mountains north of Yellowstone National Park on Monday, after two proposed gold mines raised concerns that an area drawing tourists from the around the globe could be spoiled.

The nonprofit Montana Field Campaign brought a federal FOIA complaint for information on the Department of Agriculture’s “GonaCon” study of a contraceptive vaccine given to wild bison removed from Yellowstone National Park.

Nine Indian tribes have beaten environmental groups to the punch by suing Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, claiming he violated their religious freedom by removing Yellowstone grizzly bears from the Endangered Species list without proper consultations.

Protections that have been in place for more than 40 years for grizzly bears in the Yellowstone National Park area will be lifted this summer after U.S. government officials ruled Thursday that the population is no longer threatened.

Protection of grizzly bear and Canada lynx populations is often cited in lawsuits involving logging projects in the West, but grizzlies outside of Yellowstone National Park may be removed from federal protection this summer.

In the picturesque mountains near the nation’s first national park, a small water and sewer district is taking on the National Park Service in a dispute over arsenic in wastewater coming from Yellowstone National Park that’s treated by the sewer district.

Courthouse News’ Western bureau chief laments a lack of wildlife encounters during a recent day trip to Yellowstone National Park – save a lackadaisical porcupine and the ubiquitous elk – in his latest dispatch from Big Sky Country.